Kabul, Capital City of Venezuela!!!

Kabul, Capital City of Venezuela!!!

It has been reported that the Iranian Ministry of Education, according to the direct order issued by the Iranian President, Dr. Hassan Ruhani, has issued a bylaw by which all foreign students studying in the Iranian schools are exempted from paying tuition fees. Eighty percent of foreign students of Iranian schools are Afghan refugees and the bylaw is good for them more than others.

 

Hamid Reza Shahabadi:

 It has been reported that the Iranian Ministry of Education, according to the direct order issued by the Iranian President, Dr. Hassan Ruhani, has issued a bylaw by which all foreign students studying in the Iranian schools are exempted from paying tuition fees. Eighty percent of foreign students of Iranian schools are Afghan migrants and the bylaw is good for them more than others. Although it is a good news, sometimes good news imply bad situation. Afghan students are exempted from paying tuition from 2014 afterwards, it means they had to pay it before that date or they didn’t and were deprived of education because they couldn’t pay their tuition fees. Most of them are deprived of education because of lack of permanent residence papers. There are schools across Iranian cities where have been organized by Afghan themselves or with Iranian benefactors supports. They help children who cannot educate in Iran to learn their lessons.

Speaking about Afghan migrants is not a new agenda; but much speaking has prevented us to practice properly. We have said many times that we are good hosts for the Afghan refugees, but never bothered to think how deep this assertion is? Reconstruction of Afghanistan is a rhyme repeated many times in Iran, but it has never been measured and appraised.

Our nearest neighbor agonizes of the wounds scratched its body for many years. 35 years of the imposed war have made our fellow brothers and sisters breathless and we never bothered to think what we did to get them rid of such agony. Apart from vulgar narrow-mindedness, if we analyze our stance in Afghanistan through an open and futuristic perspective, we will see many weaknesses. The First one is that we do not know where is Afghanistan? We don’t know that Afghanistan is the most important region in the cultural range of Iran. We have not appreciated how important is the same language Iranians and Afghans used to speak and either we don’t know what advantages would be achieved for both nations though working on this potential. We don’t know that Afghanistan is not only our cultural strategic depth, but also is our political strategic depth as well. And most importantly, we don’t know that our privileged stance in Afghanistan is not easily tolerated by other nations and most of them are ready to spend much more money, than what we are spending there, to undermine our special stance in this country. Another weakness we are suffering from is that we think that Afghans were used to speak in Persian since many years ago and they will continue to speak Persian in future, as well. While the fact is that a jungle of billboards and placards in English language is growing in Kabul and other cities of Afghanistan.

We don’t know that one of two major presidential candidates of Afghanistan principally is insisting to avoid speaking in Persian; he used to start his formal speeches in Pashto and then he switches to Persian because he has no other choice. We don’t know that he tried to delete the term of “Daneshgah” from the Kabul University’s entrance sign and to replace it with “Pohantūn”, a Pashto term for university. We don’t know that if sometimes Persian language is removed in Afghanistan, indeed a part of ethical and cultural memory of Iranians will be erased. We don’t know that Iranian rituals such as “Nowruz” have been attacked seriously and Salafis and Wahhabis raid anything originated from Iran and call them blasphemy through their speeches, books and essays and there are many other things that we do not know….

It is this ignorance that had made us always complainant against our Afghan brothers and sisters; but it suffices to go to Kabul and to compare how many schools and universities have been made by Saudis, Turks, Emirians, etc. and how many made by Iranians. Advertisements of Turkish and Indian universities to absorb smart Afghan students can be a warning alarm for us when we deprive them from education because they cannot pay their tuition.

Our ignorance on Afghanistan position has let us to forget this country either in our foreign policies or in cultural and economic agenda and instead focus on remote areas where there is no historical and cultural background for us. Sometimes, I wonder that what would be happened if we invest in Afghanistan instead of a country like Venezuela within past years.

Afghan immigrants are our guests. They will be what we intend. If we define them as a marginalized, deprived, illiterate and unskilled population whose urban rights and facilities are ignored they will have nothing for our country except social problems. But if we consider them as talented and hard-working guests and provide them with necessary facilities, then they will be forces that will help us in developing and growing Iran and they will play the role the Turkish immigrant played in Germany after WWII. Despite their least cultural and social commonalities, Turk immigrants eventually found their stance in the German society and helped Germans via their labor and capital to reconstruct their ruins after the war. I assure you that immigrant Afghans living in Iran enjoy more potentials and capabilities than Turk immigrants had during 1950’s and 1960’s.

Remember that Afghan immigrants fought against Iraq during the imposed war and 5000 Afghans lost their lives for the sacred ideals of our nation. And remember that Afghans are the first nation who will head to support us in the region, if necessary. One of my Afghan friends told me once that “if you are threatened by a war, it is true that we have no financial and economic power, but we will defend you with our lives…”

Let again review our stance against Afghan people. Let again assess our duties, advantages and disadvantages against Afghan people. Let pay attention to our nearest neighbor instead of looking at the remote areas. Let think that Kabul is the capital city of Venezuela!!!!!